Brendan Goff, "Rotary International and the Selling of American Capitalism" (Harvard UP, 2021)

New Books in American Studies · Aug 3, 2021 · 1h 4m

In Rotary International and the Selling of American Capitalism (Harvard University Press, 2021), Professor Brendan Goff traces the history of Rotary International from its origins in Chicago in 1905 to its rapid growth during the first four decades of the twentieth century. In doing so, Goff places U.S. power at the center of his analysis. He argues that Rotary International was able to succeed where Wilsonian internationalism was not by strategically distancing itself from the state. Rotarians advanced their own “civic internationalism” that emphasized the organization’s non-profit status…